Improved railway-rail splice



tailrli "Viales @stent dimite'.

GEORGE EDWARD DERING, OF LOGKLEYS, NEAR WELWYN, ENG- LAND.

Letters Patent No. 92,021, (lated June 29, 1869; patented in England,November 23, 1860.

IMPROVED RAILWAY-RAIL SPLICE.

The Schedule referred to in -these Letters Patent and making part of thesame.

To all to whom these presents shall come:

Be it known that I, GEORGE EDWARD Denise, of Lockleys, near Welwyn,Herts, England, am in possession of an invention for Improvements in thePermanent Ways of Railways, and l, the said GEORGE EDWARD 'DERING, dohereby declare 'the nature of the said invention, and in what manner thesame is to be pertbrmed, to be particularly described and ascertained inand by the following statement thereof 5 that is to sayrlhis inventionhas for its object improvements in the permanent ways of railways. fllothis end,

My invention consists in the manufacture of the faslenings ofthe jointsand various connections of parts ot' the permanent ways of railways, ofpermanently-elastic metal, either by forming them of steel, andsubsequently tempering them, or of wrought-iron, and subsequently caseor snrface-hardening them, so that they have a steel face; hence, whenthey are applied, they make and -keep tight, by virtue of theirelasticity, the various connections of the permanent way of a railway,and they are used in place of or in addition to other fastenings nowemployed.

One mode in which I have contemplated the application ofthe principle orchar eter which distinguishes my invention, is to construct thefastenings in the foilm of aclip, which part-ly embraces theabutting-ends of the rails, passing underneath them, and the upper partsof such clip press upon the sides of the two rails, and upon theirextended base, in the case of bridge-rails.

These clips, if made of steel, are tempered, or if of wrought-iron, theyare -case or surface-hardened, and by their elasticity, the ends of thetwo rails are held forcibly and securely in juxtaposition, an intervalbeing allowed for the expansion of the rails, if desirable.

It is advantageous to form both ends of the clips with the edge slightlybevelled on the inside, or heilt outward, so as to afford the ends ofthe rails a more easy entrance; and in laying down the line of rails,the clips are forced into their position,over the intended joint, byblows or pressure in a horizontal direction.

Any single rail can at any tiinebe easily and quickly removed from aline jointed by means of these clips, by driving those at its twoextremities from off the joints, wholly on to one or other of the twocontiguous rails; and when the rail is replaced, the joints are madesecure again by a converse operation.

Bolts and nuts, screws, rivets, or other fastenings, may be employed incombination with the elastic clip, with a view to rendering the jointmore secure, although I do not consider such to be generally necessaryor advantageous.

In some cases, as a safeguard against fracture, I construct the cllpsafter the fashion of double or` compound springs, instead of theirconsisting of a single thickness of metal; but I prefer to employ singlesprings, and, as a precaution, I test each. one before being sent outfrom the manufactory, which testing is performed at a rapid rate, bymeans of a simple piece of mechanism, actuated by hand or steam-power,by the action of which the clip is forced open to adefnite extent, morethan it ever can be, under any circumstances, when in actual use.

Another mode of applying the principle of this invention, is in the formof spring-fastenings, of steel, or case or surface-hardened iron, forkeeping tight fishplates of the ordinary description, which springs aremade, with greatest advantage, of suit-able form to be placed betweenthe nut or bolt-heads and the lishplate, on one or both sides; or thebolt bywhich the sh-plates are held in position may be a spring,slotted, and having a tendency to open outward, thus preventing, byfriction, the slacking ofthe nut; or, conversely, a slotted spring-nutmay be employed; or the fishplates may be made of elastic metal, andcompressed somewhat ont of their normal shape by the bolts and nuts orother fastening, thus keeping the joint tight: and rigid.

Although I consider the several kinds of permanently-elastic metalrail-tiistenings last described to possess important advantages over thedifferent systems at present in use, I much prefer, to any of them,thesimple elastic clip-joint hereinbefore fully described, since perfectjoints are thus obtained by the application of a single piece of metal,in place of using ten or more separate parts; and, owing to the'simplicity of the arrangement, no attention or labor is required tomaintain the joints perfect, there being n0 parts that can possiblybecome loosened by wear and tear of the trattic, or other causes.

In making permanently-elastic metal railway fastenings in the form ofkeys, wedges, tree-nails, or spikes,- according to this invention, theyare formed hollow, or slotted, or split, in any 'ofthe forms in whichsuch hollow or slotted or split iron fastenings have :been heretoforemade, or of any other suitable forms; and

v,they are tempered, if made of steel, or if of wroughtiron, they 'arecase or surface-hardened, for the purpose of rendering them elastic, inorder that they may possess a sufficient tendency tu return to theiroriginal form after they have been bent or compressed out of suchoriginal foi-in.

By the term permanently-elastic metal, I mean metal that is, forpractical purposes, permanently elastic, and can therefore be reliedupon to operate with a spring-like action, as distinguished fromordinary wrought-iron, which is practically so inelastic that it cannotbe relied upon to act as a spring.

l wish to state distinctly that although I, in general, prefer to employthe kind known in the market as springsteel, this invention is by nomeans limited to the use of steel of any particular' description,quality,`

Vadmit of being fitted for the purposes in view, by a case orsurface-hardening,r process; and with regard to the case orsurface-hardening, various means are efficient lfor this object, as iswell understood, and I do not coniine myself to any in particular. Insome cases it is advisable that a portion only of the clip or fasteningbe so treated; and to the case or sulface-hardening I sometimes superadda tempering-process.

Nor do I restrict myself to any specific shapes or dimensions, asfsuchare best determined according to circumstances, by the engineer of theparticular line of rail 'ay in questioni.

I may mention, however, that the clips for uniting the rail-ends mayvary from about one-eighth of an inch to half an inch in thickness, andfrom about six inehesto twenty-four inches in length and the hollow keysand treenails, which need not diler materiali y, in external figure,from the wooden ones now in common use, may be made of sheet-metal,varying from about one-sixteenth to one-foulthof an inch in thickness.

1 have not thought it requisite to describe the process of manufacturingthe clips, keys, tree-nails, and

other fastenings, since various methods of doing so will suggestthemselves to any person moderately con-` versant with the operation ofmetal-shaping machinery and `it will be obvious that they can be formedat a rapid and cheap rate, by the aid of such means worked bysteam-power.

It is hardly necessary to observe that; the tempering, and case orsurface-hardening, are the final operations performed in the course ofmanufacture.

As a preventive against rust, I recounnend that the clips and otherfastenings, more particularly the hollow keys and tree-nails, beimmersed in heated gas-tar, or other suitable matter, which is best donebefore they cool, after tempering, or case or surface-hardening, hasbeen effected.

Figures l, 2, 3, 4, and 5, of the drawings, show the elastic clip asapplied for connecting rails ofthe doubleheaded form.

Figures (i, 7, 3, 9, and 10, show the same as applied to the descriptionk'own as bridgerails.

Having thus described the nature of my said invcntion, and the severalmodes in which I have contemplated the application ofthe principle orcharacter by which it may be distinguished from others, I would haveitundcrstood that I do not, in any respect, confine myself to thedetails herein contained, as the mode of putting the invention intopractice may be greatly varied; but

Bailwayastenings ot permanently -elastic metal, (either steel-temperedor wrought-iron case or surface- 'hardened,) such fasteningsconstituting,r a new manufacture.

lVitnesscsz GEORGE E. DERING.

T. L. WARNER,

